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HK730 tuner


colterphoto1

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Just moved some goodies around in my home and my HK730, which appears to be in fairly good condition, is now in my office, where I do most of my daily listening. Love it's punch and tonal characteristics, but having some FM trouble.

I've just got a 'zip cord' antenna hooked up, about 6' of split wire, which is all I ever used with my modern Yamaha receiver. Do I need more? When I go to tune in stations, the needle drifts back and forth and the STEREO light hardly ever comes on, even for normally strong stations. I've got a Terk PI antenna around here somewhere, might dig it out.

Also, how do you read the crazy looking meter? It's got a sloped line numbered 5 and 10, which seems to inciated signal strength, but with a target-like sign on the lower left which is labeled fm max. quiet.

Thanks.

Michael

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Michael,

I had a 730 for about a week, gotten for a friend of mine. It seemed to

me that the receiver portion was weak on it as well. Everyone says the

430 has great sensitivity, but I didn't see it with the 730 model.

Bruce

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Well darn,

..that's a bummer the tuner drifting in and out. My Denon 685 receiver is cheap and the volume jumps in large increments when using the remote but the tuner is great. How does it sound otherwise with another source?

Remind me never to buy one to use as a tuner......thank's for the heads up.

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Dont' give up on em yet. I'll swap out for a better antenna this afternoon. I'm just using zipcord of an unspecified length right now.

Other than that, it's got balls to spare, the controls are noiseless, Loudness contour kicks butt. It sounds great with my iMac jukebox as source, Hi cut, lo cut, and MONO switch work beautifully. And the 730 has an FM muting button not found on the 430 to quiet the noise when swapping stations.

M

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It appears that the meter works backwards. There is a 5 and what I thought was 10 on the right is actually 0, so you adjust the knob so the signal meter goest LEFT toward the target, then the STEREO light comes on okay. I'm still using zip cord cheapo antenae and got tons of signal- try it out 730 owners! THis is weird, but it's got great separation and low noise if I use this tuning technique.

The 430 has the 'center' is correct signal indicator, so there is a little confusion as you move from one model to the other.

Michael

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Ok, lets' try with a photo. I zoomed and sharpened as much as I could from this recent ebay ad. THere is a strong vertical line on the left and a slanted line lower left to upper right. Whereas you would think that up the 'ramp' and to the right would be more signal strength, it is actually labeled '0' at the right side, '5' in the center, and 'fm max quiet' over the target pattern where the lines come together lower left.

This is confirmed by the stereo light only lighting when the needle is to the left, and signal strength sounds best with definite stereo separation occuring.

The lower scale is for AM and indicates target to the right, so the meter works in reverse for AM bands.

How kooky is that?

Michael

post-10755-13819275994066_thumb.jpg

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Michael, you have discovered the same weakness that my now dearly departed 730 suffered. I have something like 45' of speaker wire coiled around the attic above the upstairs section of my house (put there by the previous owner) as an FM antenna and mine was fine with that, but the tuner was Noticeably weaker than my newer Pioneer BPC receiver. I still believe that with the 730 was the best my Heresies have ever sounded.

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Well, I'm getting SOME of my fave strong stations in Stereo, not nearly as many as my modern Yammie brought in. Couldn't find the Terk Pi antenna, will look again tomorrow. I think the HK 430 has much better tuner section, so this might be relegated to house amp use or be sold. Sad, it's a ballsy unit otherwise.....

Michael

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Michael-

I have a large outdoor antenna in my attic that is many times better than any zip, folded dipole or magic indoor antenna. That enables me to get the local NPR stations (WDET Detroit & WUOM Ann Arbor) and CBC from Windsor, Ontario, Canada.

I barely used the tuner on my H/K 430 before my son took it to college, so I have no experience. I haven't tried to tune the H/K 730 using other than the big antenna, so I can't offer any input there either.

Eventually, the band director plans to try to test the ability of the H/K 730 to receive FM. That will be a challenge, as there are two floors of concrete and steel construction above the band room. They might be able to tap into a rooftop antenna or a cable signal. If we learn any secrets, we'll share them with you. If you figure it out, we'll profit from your efforts.

I've attached a PDF of the H/K 430 Owner's Manual. It might help. If anyone has a PDF of the H/K 730 manual, please post it.

HK340om.pdf

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Well i got both roof top ant. and use dipole, the dipole is picky about what way its postioned but sometimes it works better than my roof top ant....When i hooked my sons 430 up with dipole it got better signal on some stations than my 430 hooked to the roof top.Michael try making your dipole longer or just use some speaker wire and raise it up to the ceiling see if that does anything ,one summer i got on the roof and lowered the position of my roof top seems i had it inline with power lines and it works better now.The mute button and knob is just to keep noise down inbetween stations i usually dont use it i like to try new stations at night sometimes and the mute will cut them off.The signal strenth meter is different on 730 the farther to the left the better the signal.Hope this helps.Rick

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"The signal strenth meter is different on 730 the farther to the left the better the signal.Hope this helps.Rick"

yeah, that's the part I didn't understand at first. This is a great sounding little receiver, heavier than three modern jobs, really has some ballsy low end. I LIKE IT!

Michael

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